Examples of "Hidden Inflation"

[Turk]

Anyone else notice this ??


Here's a few of my examples of Hidden Inflation.....

Ice Cream - Half Gallon now comes mostly in 1.75 Quarts.

Sugar - Was 5 Lb packages now comes in 4 Lb. packages.

Cereal - 24 Oz "Family Size" down to 21 Oz., now 19 Oz.

Post yours.....

 

[Hermann]

Saw 6 oz tubs of soft margarine the other day. When packed in a sleeve of two, that pound of margarine is now 12 oz. Americans are so gullible. If the stupid or uninformed suddenly vanished, most American companies would not know how to make a profit. Pretty soon oil will come in 24oz bottles.

 

[Turk]

Yepper.

Another one:

Ice Cream - 5 Qt pails are now 4 Qt. pails.

 

[oilyriser]

bagged potatoes - 7 lb instead of 10

 

[Curious Kid]

I did notice the gallon ice cream change, and IIRC the price still increased as well since. One likely to still buy even noticing the change because to them, it's still the desired of the offerings.

Wish I could add, but I can't recall at the moment. How much of said increase goes to the material supplier(s) rather than just the middle man is anyone's guess - I feel bad for the farmers from what little I've heard locally.

I feel the same.

 

[JHZR2]

Coffee has been in that pattern for years. The only things that get bigger are tires and hard drives...

I'd never seen a 5-qt ice cream container. We would get the big party ice cream container, and it was always purchasing a gallon of ice cream...

JMH

 

[Turk]

You're right about Coffee!

Bags of Coffee: Used to be 16 Oz, now 12 Oz & down to 10 Oz. !!!

 

[TooManyWheels]

Toll Roads in place of government-budgeted mobility projects.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

I believe it's "Blue Bell" ice cream touts the fact that when you buy a half gallon of ice cream, you actually receive a half gallon of ice cream.

Cereal: I only buy the WalMart or generic named stuff. I know I should post this in the cheapskate thread, but it ticks me off that the same cereal is twice or 3x the price when the name brand is stamped on the box. This makes up for the lesser size boxes IMO.

 

[eljefino]

Cereal is actually uniform in size around me because foodstamps/ WIC buys a certain number of ounces per week. They don't want to mess with success.

Baby formula is also likely in the same size jug it always comes in for similar reasons.

This has been going on since at least the 1940's when they invented "the incredible shrinking Hershey's bar".

I would LOL if they put oil in smaller jugs then people think they're burning it or whatever. I did notice Mobil 1 at Kmart in a 4 quart jug that looked a lot like the 5 qt jug at Walmart a while back.

For deceiving packaging I nominate 5 qt boxes of maxlife after the "cars" promotion-- they stuck a block of foam in the box where the toy or whatever had been.

 

[Turk]

That space could have been for a toy, but it is normally for the 6th Qt. of Oil.

I got deceived once buying a jug of Oil that was in a 5 Qt. jug, but went to a 4 Qt. jug! Grrr...

 

[NJC]

Cheese. 907 grams = 2lbs. Now it's 750 grams but looks identical ... and I've seen 600(?) grams from Kraft. If I can get cheese for $1.20/100grams ($5.50/lb) I'm doing well.

And why can't I buy more than one lb of butter? Why can't I get a 2.5lb block of butter, similar to a large block of cheese? That question is mostly rhetorical, unless a good answer really exists.

 

[mechtech2]

Hershey bar?
It actually changed size depending on the costs of materials to keep the price stable for many years. It got bigger and smaller.
Then, they decided to keep the same size, and change the price accordingly.

 

[eljefino]

When I worked at a restaurant in high school we got pounds of butter that instead of being 4 sticks was just a block. IIRC they were just wrapped in wax paper inside a larger cardboard box of many units.

We chopped the blocks with a meat cleaver and made mostly square "sticks" that looked kind of funny.

WM has 2 lb blocks of cabot hunter's cheddar for about $8 which is up from $6.30 or so last year. At least it's still 2 lbs.

About 10 years ago they came out with super concentrated hand dishwashing juice. It was 2/3 the size, same price, but "better". I wonder if they are slowly diluting it over time...

 

[TooManyWheels]

50/50 antifreeze/water which is only $1.00 cheaper than 100% antifreeze. Who buys THAT?

 

[Turk]

Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
50/50 antifreeze/water which is only $1.00 cheaper than 100% antifreeze. Who buys THAT?


I KNOW !!!!!! What's up with that??

Paying for the convenience (wusses don't wanna mix it), packaging, adding of the water. What a rip-off!

PUH-thetic!

 

[Shannow]

VB (beer) dropped 0.2% alc content to attract a lower exise...didn't drop the price. Then dropped their 750ml bottle to 700..didn't drop the price.

Vegemite just shrunk their packaging.

900g becomes 600g (with a price reduction, but not pro-rata)
455g becomes 400g, no price drop
235g becomes 220g, no price drop
175g becomes 150g, no price drop

 

[Pablo]

I don't think this is strictly a N. American (Can/US/Mexico) thing.....It's pretty much a post 1950 packaged goods thing.

Have you seen the other paradox?.....package size goes up (like Costco size stuff) and it is only marginally cheaper. Plenty of conditioning telling us larger package size is cheaper and yes it might be......butt who wants 20 gallons of Preparation H for $4.00 oz, when a 1/2 oz tube is $3.00? (or however much the stuff costs)

 

[Turk]

Gee, there must be other uses for Preparation H. I hear, uh, naw, forget it.

Another thing: to add to the list: The size of McDonald's Hamburgers. My GF ordered one last weekend (that's all she wanted, guys...) and it was this little dinky thing!

 

[TooManyWheels]

How about shrinking car batteries? Once upon a time, if you wanted a replacement battery for your car it was the same size as the one that came in it. Then came "new technology" and the replacement was smaller with the explanation that the cold-cranking-amps were the same.